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The Shallow Beds
In the first chapter of Safehouse, Zoë reports to her sister what happened to the gang after the 4U City saga. Plot The chapter begins in late autumn, where Zoe e-mails Min to explain what happened to them and why her family can't contact her. Several months earlier in the summer, during a heat wave, Zoë helps Torg to stand up when he suffers heat stroke while gardening. Torg was working on his vegetable garden, even in the 100-degree heat, because they can't buy food in markets out of fear of being caught by Hereti-Corp. Zoë notes, however, that his lettuces have a distasteful appearance. Torg retorts that his lettuces aren't unhealthy just because they look that way, and claimed that Riff even ate his zucchini (albeit reluctantly, as Torg acknowledges that Riff lost a bet). His zucchini looked dry, though, and Riff got indigestion from it, which in turn leads to Riff punching Torg and being mad at him. Seeing how tense and bored his friends were, Torg turns on the Wi-fi and, using a powerful firewall (courtesy of his previous work as one of the Minion Master's henchmen) and "secret" usernames, the gang is allowed to use the internet on several electronic devices. Torg initially intends to make the gang work on their fight against Hereti-Corp, but they all abuse their internet access and become distracted. It doesn't take long for Torg to annoy his friends with his eccentric, geeky behavior (using a laptop like a phone or using the alias Torgo to disguise himself from Hereti-Corp), and Zoë mocks him on Bleater (a parody of Twitter). This attracts followers, though, and Zoë starts to mock Torg and men in general, which leads to him declare war against Zoë, while Riff himself becomes addicted to internet apps. Torg attempts to retaliate on MyFace (a MySpace/Facebook parody), but Zoë was witter than him in her insults. Riff decided to help him, though, by installing an app that is capable of wit, creating sarcastic responses to any commentary that it detects. The app worked perfectly and Zoë admitted defeat, but the app inadvertently mocked a MyFace user whose mother just died, much to Torg's and Riff's horror. Deeply ashamed over the Pyrrhic victory, Torg abandons the internet and returns to his garden, but due to Riff's neglect of Kiki while he was distracted by the internet (he didn't feed her even after he realized his mistake), Kiki befriends some chipmunks and they devour Torg's vegetables, much to Torg's distress. Outraged with the destruction of his garden, Torg becomes uncharacteristically malicious and swears revenge against the wild animals, even daydreaming of ways to torture them, much to Zoë's worry and dismay. Bun-bun intervened, though, and warned that the wild animals are the least of his problems. He reveals that Torg has planted his vegetables in shallows beds (hence the chapter's name), preventing their roots from growing deep enough; the vegetables were unable to absorb enough nutrients to develop, explaining their unhealthy aspect. Torg thanks Bun-bun for his advice, but when he asks why he was being so kind, Bun-bun confess to being bored and having nothing else to do. When Torg points out that he does bad things when bored, Bun-bun decides to steal Torg's car for a "crime spree", which leads to Torg simply asking him to remain discreet. References Category:Stories